Trying new things before the New Year. :)

What a fun Thanksgiving that was!! I loved cooking for 2 days straight and having people tell me how awesome the food was.. and the atmosphere. Our house felt so beautiful to me and to have other people confirm it was almost more joy than I could hold inside. Most of the time I feel so undeserving of all I have been blessed with this past year. After having to leave an abusive situation, I have finally found "home". To my family and friends in Michigan's dismay it was not IN Michigan, but while I miss them so much, I have found home. comfort. love. It's more than I could have asked God for. I just asked Him to bring me out of the situation I was in and He  blessed me more than was necessary. As He always has eventually. Thanks God. :)

Moving on.. Lately I have been trying to decide whether I should buy  new clothes or just try to take off some of my happiness pounds and I came to a firm decision when the scale once AGAIN shows signs of growth.. haha. I am going to try to eat better food choices from now on. I have just been indulging myself with my happy life and making it a life STYLE. Time to get back to reality. Karen is BIG. Too big now. The goal is 10-15 pounds but 20 would be nice. :)

This morning it was an omelette. I omitted the yolks and made it my all time favorite way.. though you could add ANY filling of course. My choice was greek. :)

Greek Omelette with egg whites.


3 egg whites
1/4 cup baby spinach (chopped)
2 medium size mushrooms (diced)
3 black olives (diced)
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
1 tbs feta cheese (crumbled)


Mix well and then fry the egg whites in a pan rubbed lightly with olive oil. If the pan is large enough, like mine.. you can sautee the veggies in a little water or chicken broth next to the cooking whites.. Once you can flip the solid egg white, place the veggies on top and sprinkle with the feta.. Turn it out onto a plate once done and fold the whites over the veggies.


(this recipe is 4 WW points)

Give it a try. It was quite delicious!

Thanksgiving is..

Well.. It's gonna be a strange one for me again this year. THANKFULLY I have people who I adore to share it with but it is going to be odd to NOT be with family since we FINALLY were again last year. Hopefully someday soon Eric's family will BE our family so for now I will just get warm fuzzies from that like every time I'm with them. They are TRULY wonderful people. Every single one of them. :)

Today I had a friend ask me for a few of my Thanksgiving recipes so I thought I would share a little about what I do. :)

My goal THIS year is to make the turkey. I have made 2 turkeys in my life time. The best way, I discovered, was in the oven inside of a paper bag. The first time I tried that I thought the bag went around the whole PAN instead of just around the turkey.. and we won't talk about what happened and how we almost had to call the fire department. Nope.. gonna stick to the GOOD turkey story and tell you that I simply chopped a ton of garlic, peeled the skin back from the breast and schmeared the garlic mixed with olive oil all over the meat, shoved a whole peeled onion inside of the turkey to keep it moist, shoved THAT inside of a paper bag, stapled it shut and baked it according to package directions per pound. That is EXACTLY what I plan to do this year as well. :)

As for sides.. my kids are insisting on my mashed potatoes.. and I am also going to make candied  yams, simply by going the really cheap and cheating way and buy a few cans of yams and cover them in brown sugar and butter, and bake.. adding marshmallows at the end to brown on top. :)

Now.. This is something I thought I would NEVER do.. because I have had people BEG for this recipe.. and even though I got it from my sister Maureens ex Mother in law, I tell people it's MY recipe for mashed potatoes.. Wait until you try these.. You will never go back to traditional. :)

Worlds Best Mashed Potatoes (according to the Kuecken Clan)


1 whole 3lb bag of potatoes, peeled and chopped into about 8 pieces (for medium sized potatoes)
1 stick of butter
1 package of cream cheese (yes. the whole package)
1/3 cup of milk
Seasoned Salt


You will need enough water in the pan to cover the potatoes by an inch.
Boil the potatoes until you can put a fork in them and they split, (about 20-30 minutes usually)


I then add the cream cheese, milk and butter and blend in my stand mixer, or you can use a hand mixer like I did before I had my stand mixer. I add season salt as it's mixing. At this time you need to start tasting the potatoes (oh darn.. real bummer there) to make sure you have enough of the seasoned salt.. do not go crazy on this as I have in the past thinking it had to be a certain shade of orange.. it doesn't.. it's only to your liking. :) They are simply the best, smoothest potatoes on earth, and my kids eat ONLY potatoes when I make them. You can add gravy but I think that kinda ruins how good they are just plain. :)

Enjoy!!

Chilly day...

I woke up in the mood to cook. I don't always, even though most people who know me would beg to differ, but today I really wanted a great chicken crockpot... something.. So I went on a search. A few weeks ago I made my favorite (and my sweeties favorite) crockpot chicken so I wanted something a little different. The one I found just sounded SO good.. and it WAS!! This is definitely going in the list of favorites.

Chicken Parisienne

·         6 med. chicken breasts

·         Salt, pepper and paprika

·         1/2 c. white wine

·         1 (10 1/2 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup

·         1 (4 oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained 

·         1 c. sour cream

·         1/4 c. flour

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt, pepper and paprika. Place in Crock Pot. Mix wine, soup and mushrooms until well combined. Pour over chicken. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Mix sour cream and flour together; add to the Crock Pot. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes more, until heated through.
Serves 6-8.

The kids and I ate until we were completely stuffed. Try it! 

When your lunch choice too closely resembles your dinner plan..

Tweak it! That's what I say. I had a rough morning and I thought that since I had to go out to get a few things from the store, that I would treat myself to a couple of soft taco supremes from Taco Bell.. As soon as I had consumed them I remembered that tacos were the dinner plan. D'oh!! I was in no way, shape or form wanting more seasoned ground beef after last nights spaghetti and now todays lunch. I have TONS of chicken so I decided to make chicken tacos instead. Hoping my sweetie likes it. He's never had chicken tacos before. 

SO.. I thawed some chicken.. browned it in a skillet for about a half hour on low.. and then chopped the daylights out of it small enough to make taco meat and added taco seasoning and some water and cooked until it was hot. It was therapeutic. hehe. 

Pulled out some ancho pepper, tomato and cilantro and began chopping.. 

and ended up with a DELICIOUS meal. Just added cheese and sour cream. :) 

While the crock pot crocks..

I bought fresh beets last night. Came home, cut the tops and bottoms off and rinsed them, put them in a 8x8 casserole dish with a lid, cut up 2 large cloves of garlic and sprinkled in some dill and about an inch of water, placed the beets in, put the lid on and baked them at 400 for an hour.. let them cool on the stove for about a half hour and stuck them in the fridge over night..

Today for lunch, I made my ALL TIME ABSOLUTE FAVORITE beet salad for lunch. If you've tried beets before and didn't like them I would STILL recommend you try this salad.

RED BEAN AND BEET SALAD

First of all.. getting the skins off is really simple, but my friend Laura taught me a trick as to how NOT to have completely red hands and nails when you slip the skins off of the roasted beets.. Olive Oil.

You just rub it ALL over your hands first and the skins slip RIGHT off!

Then you cut them up.. (this looks ghastly.. sort of like open heart surgery)

And you add them to one can of Red kidney beans, and you add half a cup of sliced red onion.. 2 tbs each of olive oil and red wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp of dried dill and garlic salt to taste. :) 

And VOILA! My lunch.. Delicious! 

AND NO CHEESE! 

Left over sloppy joes.. what to do.. what to do.??

Tonight I am trying to figure out what to do with left over sloppy joe meat. I made a whole bunch a few weeks ago for my sons birthday party and need to use it up. My youngest is having a friend over for dinner so I need something kid friendly. The final conclusion I have come to, and will also help me get the house work done, is crock pot spaghetti sauce. I usually put some sugar in my spaghetti sauce when just using regular ground beef, but since I add sugar to my sloppy joe meat, I am going to exclude it.

Crock pot spaghetti sauce using left over sloppy joe meat
1lb of sloppy joe meat
1/2 tbs dried basil
1/2 tbs dried oregano
1/2 tbs garlic salt (to taste)
2 large cans of tomato sauce (29 oz)

Add all to crock pot and simmer on high for one hour and then move to low until served.

Serve over warm cooked spaghetti noodles or rice in a pinch. :)

I like to serve garlic bread and a side salad as well. :)

Cheese.. It's what's for.. every meal.

Ever since I was a tiny girl I have had a passionate love affair with cheese. There is not a soul who knows me personally that has not heard me go on endlessly about how important cheese is to me and my favorite kinds and new ways I've put it into my cooking. Then I moved to Wisconsin. Cheese is everywhere. *THUD*. My waistline is expanding because I cannot stop myself from trying every sample at the grocery store and looking for some new flavor to purchase... just to try it when I get home. Try it.. Right. Devour it is more like it.

Like most women, I do not ENJOY my thunder thighs and muffin top due to cheese, and my lack of self control around it. I am going to attempt in the next few weeks to use less. That's a start right? To maybe not cut a GINORMOUS chunk off to munch with my wine at night. Maybe not grab an entire handful to throw onto my tacos. 

Here's hopin'. :)